COUNCIL chiefs spent more than £8,000 hiring Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson to open a leisure centre, weeks after asking staff to consider voluntary redundancy.

Eleven times gold medal winning paralympic athlete Dame Tanni opened the Queens Avenue centre, in Bicester, in June.

It followed a £4.3m makeover by Cherwell District Council, but last night the Taxpayers’ Alliance said the local authority had a “remarkably strange set of priorities”.

Earlier this year, all 534 members of staff received a letter from the Town Hall asking them to consider voluntary redundancy, unpaid leave or reducing their hours ahead of possible Government cuts in funding.

In a letter to the Oxford Mail, Cherwell councillor James Macnamara denied the council’s finances were in crisis and said the move was part of good management practice.

The council said tonight it spent the money because it wanted a “high-profile” sports star to perform the lesiure centre’s opening ceremony.

But Mark Wallace, campaigns director at the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: “It seems like Cherwell District Council has got a remarkably strange set of priorities.

“If a council is having a financial struggle, they should by all means consider even the most radical ways of saving money.

“But before that, they should certainly have stopped paying huge sums to celebrities and building indulgent picnic areas.

“The council has a responsibility to save every single pound, and it seems like this hasn't sunk in yet.”

In July, the council was also criticised for awarding staff with a £16,000 picnic area and an extra day off after the council got an excellence award.

Council spokesman Jo Smith confirmed Dame Tanni was paid £8,050 to open the leisure centre.

Kieron Mallon, the council’s portfolio holder for communications, said: “Cherwell District Council invested £4.3m to improve Bicester Leisure Centre as part of a £25m investment to improve leisure facilities across the whole district.

“We wanted a high profile, inspirational sports star to perform the official reopening, highlighting new facilities for the whole community – not just the able bodied.

“Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson fitted that bill perfectly and spent much of her visit signing autographs and talking to local people about her sporting achievements.

“I'm sure her attendance at this, a public event, will have motivated lots of people to come and try the facilities for themselves.”

Dame Tanni, 39, has 16 Paralympic medals, including the 11 golds, has held over 30 world records, and won the London Marathon six times between 1992 and 2002.

Her agent’s website, gordonpoole.com, states she charges between £5,000 and £10,000 for talks on motivational speaking.

Dame Tanni could not be contacted by the Oxford Mail tonight.